All too often, we find brands laser-focused on touting their “superior” specs — formulations, ingredients, sourcing, process, science, engineering and standards of performance — believing this forms the unshakeable foundation of their brand outreach path to fame and fortune.
From all my years in research and consulting, I think I’ve learned a thing or two about marketing worth sharing. Enduring fundamentals, mostly—yet often overlooked. So, this year, I want to share some snippets for your consideration. I hope they’re helpful. This week’s thought: Business is inherently aspirational. Harvard marketing guru Ted Levitt made his mark with a number of pithy ideas about the role of marketing and the purpose of business, all of which...
Is AI the end of Marketing? Answering this question in the affirmative puts you in fraught company. Many have proclaimed the end of marketing before.
Kroger and Albertsons, two grocery brands, are facing off with the Federal Trade Commission and multiple US states. Kroger and Albertsons want to merge. Putting any discussions of trust-busting, union bargaining power, pricing, moving from unionized states to non-unionized states, and “monopoly” aside, there is an underlying discussion in the FTC’s argument. This discussion is the definition of the grocery market. Bloomberg points to the grocery definition in a very insightful article. What is exactly...
For the last 50 years CPG and retail brand building has been focused on chasing awareness. The theory is that top-of-funnel recognition will lead to consideration, and if the brand is persuasive while spiraling further down the funnel, a consumer purchase will occur. Leave it to the impact of evolving culture and the presence of existential, environmental threats to shift behaviors and push the funnel off its pedestal. A distinctive new path to brand building...
